National Lawyers Guild - DNChttps://www.nlg.org/taxonomy/term/12
enDevelopments in the Policing of National Special Security Events: An Analysis of the 2012 RNC and DNChttps://www.nlg.org/resource/reports/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc
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<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6);"><strong>Executive Summary</strong></p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6);">In preparation for the 2012 Democratic and Republican national conventions, the cities of Charlotte and Tampa—working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and under the supervision of the U.S. Secret Service—implemented a militarized security model that is now standard at high profile gatherings designated as National Special Security Events (NSSE). The security measures taken at the RNC and DNC are in keeping with the last fifteen years of government planning for national and international political and economic meetings, which have been defined by massive expenditures on weapons and outside personnel, restrictive event permits and ordinances that limit protest activities, and the vilification of constitutionally protected speech and assembly through media manipulation and aggressive police tactics. While this year’s nominating conventions produced smaller demonstrations and fewer arrests than expected by protest organizers, the militarization of the host cities and the narrative of violent protesters used to justify these practices must be challenged.</p>
<p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6);">Drawing from firsthand observations of NLG members who were in Tampa and Charlotte, as well as interviews with activists and media accounts, this report presents an overview of the 2012 RNC and DNC demonstrations and makes recommendations for treatment of protesters at future events. In particular, we discuss the effects of designating political conventions as NSSEs, the selection of host cities, the expenditures on police equipment and personnel, the adoption of protest-targeted ordinances, the preconceived police narrative of protester violence, and the evolving use of media technology by protesters and police.</p>
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<a href="/resource/original-reports" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Original Reports</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/223" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NSSE</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/235" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PR policing</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/290" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">report</a> </div>
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 19:30:10 +0000Traci969 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/resource/reports/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc#commentsDissent in the era of militarized policinghttps://www.nlg.org/news/blog/dissent-era-militarized-policing
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/images/NATO.jpg?itok=PPWDHsNI" width="400" height="265" alt="Police outside the 2012 NATO summit. Photo by Michael Kappel I Flickr user m-i-k-e" /> </div>
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Nadia Kayyali </div>
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<p>On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, thousands of people converged on Washington, D.C. to see Barack Obama sworn in for his second term as president. Some of those people were celebrating the inauguration. Some of them <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/16/protesters-to-share-obamas-big-day">were protesters</a>. The Secret Service and FBI is estimated there would be approximately 800,000 attendees, while reports from the White House have now reached one million. Unsurprisingly, <a href="http://www.wtop.com/807/3195527/The-Toughest-Mile-Inauguration-security">security was heavy.</a> However, as <a href="//www.nlg.org/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc">a report</a> released by the<a href="//www.nlg.org/"> National Lawyers Guild</a> last week reveals, policing of protest has taken an ominous tone in the last few years. As events such as the inauguration are designated National Special Security Events, and police become more militarized, suppression of free speech has become the norm. As we celebrate the memory of <a href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/dr.-martin-luther-king-jr">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr</a>. and his fundamental contribution to social justice in this country, it behooves us to take a moment and examine where we are as a country when it comes to our right to peaceful protest.</p>
<p>Militarized policing has become the norm. What that means is that modern protest policing has, as<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/why-i-feel-bad-for-the-pepper-spraying-policeman-lt-john-pike/248772/"> sociologist Patrick Gilham describes</a>, shifted from a negotiation and management model to one of “strategic incapacitation.” This is a suite of tactics that deploys three main tactics to prevent the disorder caused by large-scale protests. They include surveillance:</p>
<blockquote><p>…pre-emptive arrests and less-lethal weapons to selectively disrupt or incapacitate protesters that engage in disruptive protest tactics or might do so, and the extensive control of space in order to isolate and contain disruptive protesters whether actual or potential.</p>
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<p>Violence during protests is certainly nothing new. However, for those of us born after the African-American civil rights era and events such as Stonewall, it looks as though <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birmingham_campaign_water_hoses.jpg">the brutality</a> committed by police during that time become less common, at least for a few decades. It seems to have now returned. It may have been years since police released dogs into a crowd. On the other hand, the use of tear gas and other “less-lethal” weapons has become almost common place, as has the sight of<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/iraq-vet-oakland-police-tear-gas_n_1033159.html"> protesters bleeding from their heads</a>. Policing today occurs in a completely different social context, but it is clear that it is brutal, and it is militarized.</p>
<p>The NLG’s <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/all_policing_no_protest_around_the_inauguration/">report emphasizes that</a>, at least for the last ten years, “dissenters are prefigured by the authorities as combat enemies.” Tracing the evolution of this shift back to the WTO protests in Seattle, it emphasizes both the militarization of police and the tactic of demonizing “anarchist” protestors. The militarization of police is, of course, clear to anyone who experienced the tactics used against Occupy protestors. Officers marched in rank, refused to have humanizing conversations with protestors, and used weaponry such as long range acoustic devices, tear gas, rubber bullets, and bean bags. They also<a href="http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=11653"> infiltrated and surveilled</a> Occupy protests.</p>
<p>Why this change? The Chief of Police of Seattle during the WTO protests, Norm Stamper, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/164501/paramilitary-policing-seattle-occupy-wall-street">argues tha</a>t internal structures in police departments “emphasize bureaucratic regulations over conduct on the streets” and that external political structures have led to the militarization of police forces, most notably the post-9/11 culture of the federal government. Of his decisions to use military-like force in Seattle, in particular tear gas, he notes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The cop in me supported the decision to clear the intersection. But the chief in me should have vetoed it…. My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There seems to be more happening here than his analysis suggests, however. What we are fighting against today is in some ways more insidious than segregation. What gets people in the streets now is issues like corporate power, racially-motivated immigration laws, and torture that, while it is very real, happens very far away. While the tactics used by the police are ugly, it is easier to write them off as affecting only extreme activists, not “everyday people.” Perhaps because we seem to have become more complacent as a society, it is easier to dismiss the need for mass peaceful protest.</p>
<p>For the future of this country, I hope that is not the case. I hope that we agree that we should have the right to attend a huge event in our capital, like the inauguration, and make our voices heard. I hope that issues like the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/world/asia/pakistan-us-drone-strikes/index.html">death of civilians</a> from targeted drone strikes and the <a href="http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=11403">deportation of thousands of migrants</a> are real enough for us to see that dissent is essential. While we need not agree with the political motives of those who are facing brutality and suppression as they exercise their First Amendment rights, we do need to stand up for a society where we still have those rights. The legacy of the civil rights movement belongs first and foremost to the African-american community, and it cannot and should not be co-opted. I also am not trying to compare in any way the experiences of freedom riders and bus boycotters to protesters today. They are historically different. That being said, every single person committed to social justice can learn from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who taught us that the government will not change without pressure, and if we are quiet, we are complicit in its worst sins. As <a href="http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">Dr. King said:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Originally appeared on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's</em> <a href="http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog">People's Blog for the Constitution</a><em>.</em></p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/243" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Militarized policing</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/223" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NSSE</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/244" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a> </div>
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:33:30 +0000Tasha846 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/blog/dissent-era-militarized-policing#commentsAhead of Inauguration, Report Explores Militarized Approach to Protest Policinghttps://www.nlg.org/news/ahead-inauguration-report-explores-militarized-approach-protest-policing
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/RNC%20Tampa%20St%20cropped.jpg?itok=5v_Rm-74" width="400" height="270" alt="" /> </div>
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<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-01-16T08:30:00-05:00">January 16, 2013</span> </div>
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Nathan Tempey </div>
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Communications Coordinator </div>
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<a href="mailto:communications@nlg.org">communications@nlg.org</a> </div>
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(212) 679-5100, ext. 15 </div>
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New York </div>
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<p>Next Monday, January 21, over 3,000 law enforcement officers and some 13,000 military troops will descend on the Washington Mall. The occasion is not a coup but the presidential inauguration, which will prompt the kind of militarized police mobilization that is a hallmark of National Special Security Events (NSSEs).</p>
<p>In addition to the large uniformed presence, there will be horses, high-tech weaponry, and mobile checkpoints reminiscent of the street scenes outside this fall's Republican and Democratic national conventions. Protest policing around the RNC and DNC is the subject of <a href="//www.nlg.org/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc">a new report</a> by National Lawyers Guild (NLG).</p>
<p>“All too often at National Special Security Events, we see law enforcement vilify protesters and trample the First Amendment in an effort to justify massive security spending and lasting crackdowns,” said NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian. “Our report offers a primer on the evolution of police tactics at NSSEs, which is essential to understanding the show of force that will usher in this president’s second term.”</p>
<p>Created in 1998 under President Bill Clinton, the NSSE designation requires federal and local law enforcement agencies to collaborate on event security under the management of the Secret Service. Each year since has seen at least one and as many as five NSSEs, including presidential inaugurations and nominating conventions as well as major sporting events and meetings of international banking bodies. The security efforts surrounding the events have come to be characterized by ballooning security budgets, the preemptive disruption of political activists, and restrictive local ordinances.</p>
<p>The NLG report outlines the way law enforcement agencies propagated the narrative of an anarchist terrorist threat before the RNC and DNC to justify $50 million security budgets and ordinances limiting protests in each host city. For instance, in the week before the RNC, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security released an intelligence bulletin warning of violence by “anarchist extremists.”</p>
<p>The conventions saw no protester violence but, in a disturbing development, the DNC left Charlotte with an anti-protest ordinance on the city’s books. The ordinance allows a city manager to invoke sweeping powers which tighten permitting, suspend probable cause for searches, and ban the possession of a host of household items. The ordinance did not expire at the DNC’s end as similar ordinances for past NSSEs have done.</p>
<p>In advance of the upcoming presidential inauguration, the National Park Service has <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/protesters-forced-scale-down-obama-inaugural">revoked the permit</a> for a major demonstration at Freedom Plaza, limiting the protesters to a 10-yard wide strip of sidewalk.</p>
<p>The National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has members in every state.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/223" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NSSE</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/236" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">inauguration</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/235" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PR policing</a> </div>
Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:31:26 +0000Tasha830 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/ahead-inauguration-report-explores-militarized-approach-protest-policing#commentsDevelopments in the Policing of National Special Security Events: An Analysis of the 2012 RNC and DNChttps://www.nlg.org/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc
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<p><strong>Executive Summary</strong></p>
<p>In preparation for the 2012 Democratic and Republican national conventions, the cities of Charlotte and Tampa—working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and under the supervision of the U.S. Secret Service—implemented a militarized security model that is now standard at high profile gatherings designated as National Special Security Events (NSSE). The security measures taken at the RNC and DNC are in keeping with the last fifteen years of government planning for national and international political and economic meetings, which have been defined by massive expenditures on weapons and outside personnel, restrictive event permits and ordinances that limit protest activities, and the vilification of constitutionally protected speech and assembly through media manipulation and aggressive police tactics. While this year’s nominating conventions produced smaller demonstrations and fewer arrests than expected by protest organizers, the militarization of the host cities and the narrative of violent protesters used to justify these practices must be challenged.</p>
<p>Drawing from firsthand observations of NLG members who were in Tampa and Charlotte, as well as interviews with activists and media accounts, this report presents an overview of the 2012 RNC and DNC demonstrations and makes recommendations for treatment of protesters at future events. In particular, we discuss the effects of designating political conventions as NSSEs, the selection of host cities, the expenditures on police equipment and personnel, the adoption of protest-targeted ordinances, the preconceived police narrative of protester violence, and the evolving use of media technology by protesters and police.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/235" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PR policing</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/290" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">report</a> </div>
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:05:40 +0000Tasha829 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/developments-policing-national-special-security-events-analysis-2012-rnc-and-dnc#commentsNLGers Converge to Support RNC/DNC Protestshttps://www.nlg.org/news/blog/nlgers-converge-support-rncdnc-protests
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/images/RNC%201.jpg?itok=qTRfgkUB" width="400" height="300" alt="" title="Nancy Farage (left) and Alistair Mackenzie legal observe at the front of a labor march through downtown Tampa on the opening day of the RNC. Dozens of NLG members volunteered. Photo by Nathan Tempey" /> </div>
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Abi Hassen, Mass Defense Coordinator </div>
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<p>This year’s RNC and DNC presented a demanding set of circumstances for NLG protest support efforts. Both conventions were held in cities with no NLG chapter and with few or no NLG members. Drawing on the expertise, time, and passion of members across the country, as well as a phenomenal group of new student members from Charlotte Law School, Mass Defense Coordinator Abi Hassen and a team of volunteers provided Legal Observers® at every major protest and 24-hour legal support hotlines in both Tampa and<br /><br />
Charlotte.</p>
<p><strong>Tampa</strong></p>
<p>In a matter of days in mid-August, law enforcement crews transformed downtown Tampa into a fortified, militarized, “event zone.” As the RNC approached, checkpoints, blast walls, and 10 foot fences appeared everywhere. While the police were training to quell “anarchist extremists,” NLG members were busy conducting daily Know Your Rights and Legal Observer® trainings and setting up a legal office in preparation for the chaos to come.</p>
<p>The chaos never came. What did come was a near-miss from a hurricane and a huge police presence. The hurricane turned many protesters away, leaving Tampa with demonstrations that approached a 5:1 police-to-protester ratio. Law enforcement delivered the “overwhelming force” promised by Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, but mostly as an implied threat: the entire convention saw only two arrests. Tampa police even declined to arrest activists who had chained themselves together at the entrance of a power plant.</p>
<p><strong>Charlotte</strong></p>
<p>“Bank Town” took a different tack than Tampa for its DNC preparations. While city and police officials there proved far less transparent when it came to security spending and policies, they attempted to maintain a level of openness within the city, going so far as to allow protesters to create an Occupy camp in a city park.<br /><br />
Where Tampa had physical fences and walls protecting the fortress, Charlotte had walls of police surrounding all protests and a constant, shadowy presence of undercover officers following anyone who looked like a protester.<br /><br />
Charlotte also used its (now permanent) event ordinance to declare an “extraordinary event,” giving police the power to search people with almost no constraints. Unsurprisingly, searches during the convention seemed only to be performed on protesters, though not the Christian anti-abortion protesters who came out in droves.<br /><br />
Charlotte police proved less dedicated to low arrest numbers. The NLG team saw significant police harassment, including one protester who was arrested for asking if she was being detained. The convention ended with only about 30 arrests and by the time the NLG team had broken down its office there were no protesters left in local jails.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/223" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NSSE</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/224" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">protest policing</a> </div>
Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:52:15 +0000Tasha820 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/blog/nlgers-converge-support-rncdnc-protests#commentsWas free speech on mute during the conventions?https://www.nlg.org/news/was-free-speech-mute-during-conventions
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Ann O&#039;Neill </div>
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CNN </div>
<div class="field-publication-date">
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-09-09T00:00:00-04:00">Sun, 09/09/2012</span> </div>
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<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/08/politics/conventions-protests-free-speech-zones/index.html">View the original piece</a> </div>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/images/120907083248-convention-protest-11-horizontal-gallery.jpg?itok=2po4WwsC" width="400" height="225" alt="" title=" 2012: In Charlotte, a police officer faces off with a protester blocking the road." /> </div>
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<p>"We are under the impression that the whole country is a free speech zone," said Michael Zytkow, a 26-year-old organizer for Occupy Charlotte. "We were bothered by the idea of any government-designated playground."</p>
<p>Carol Sobel, a lawyer from Santa Monica, California, who co-chairs the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, asked, "Who'd want to use it? You're talking to yourself."</p>
<p>Her group works to push back against what it views as government attempts to stifle dissent.</p>
<p>Sobel keeps a photograph on her desk showing her with blackened eyes from rubber police bullets at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/126" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free speech zone</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/98" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">First Amendment</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NLG in the News</a> </div>
Sun, 09 Sep 2012 22:12:37 +0000Tasha746 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/was-free-speech-mute-during-conventions#commentsUn-Convention-al Coverage: Heidi Boghosianhttps://www.nlg.org/news/un-convention-al-coverage-heidi-boghosian
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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West </div>
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Smiley and West PRI </div>
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<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-09-03T00:00:00-04:00">Mon, 09/03/2012</span> </div>
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<a href="http://www.smileyandwest.com/uncategorized/un-convention-al-coverage-heidi-boghosian/#more-4089">View the original piece</a> </div>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/images/cityroom-courthouse2-blog480.jpg?itok=Ju-NTynV" width="400" height="269" alt="" title="Heidi Boghosian. Photo by Brian Harkin" /> </div>
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<p>Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, reveals the dark tactics at both conventions to quiet protests outside, including the use of “free speech zones”.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/121" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Heidi Boghosian</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/122" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil liberties</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/123" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">policing protest</a> </div>
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category </h3>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NLG in the News</a> </div>
Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:58:27 +0000Tasha743 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/un-convention-al-coverage-heidi-boghosian#commentsWho are those people in the bright green hats?https://www.nlg.org/news/who-are-those-people-bright-green-hats
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<p>The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) will be providing legal support to protesters throughout the course of the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Undoubtedly the most visible part of this effort will be our teams of trained Legal Observers® (LOs), who will attend demonstrations across Tampa and Charlotte carrying notebooks and sporting bright green caps. These observers have become a common sight at protests over the past few decades, but we often hear questions about their role, so we figured we'd explain the basics here.</p>
<p>What LOs are for:</p>
<ul><li>Monitoring and helping to curb unconstitutional police practices while enabling people to express their views as fully as possible.</li>
</ul><p>What LOs do:</p>
<ul><li>Observe and document law enforcement interactions with demonstrators, especially arrests, instances of excessive force and abuse of authority, and practices such as kettling and mass arrests.</li>
</ul><p>What LOs don't do:</p>
<ul><li>Protest.</li>
<li>Provide legal advice to demonstrators.</li>
<li>Act as police liaisons, demonstration marshals, or peacekeepers.</li>
</ul><p>The NLG established the Legal Observer® program in 1968 in response to protests at New York's Columbia University and citywide anti-war and civil rights demonstrations. That same year, NLG member students organized to defend protesters swept up in mass arrests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. NLG members now provide protest legal support by request in cities and towns <a href="//www.nlg.org/news/lawyers-challenge-occupy-evictions">around</a> <a href="//www.nlg.org/chapter">the country</a>.</p>
<p>LOs are typically, but not exclusively, law students, legal workers, and lawyers who may or may not be licensed locally. LOs are trained and directed by Guild lawyers, who often have established attorney-client relationships with activist organizations or are engaged in litigation challenging police actions around mass assemblies.</p>
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Tags </h3>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">RNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/12" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DNC</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/31" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mass defense</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/42" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Legal Observer</a> </div>
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:47:42 +0000Tasha719 at https://www.nlg.orghttps://www.nlg.org/news/who-are-those-people-bright-green-hats#comments